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- Business Unusual: Culture during a Pandemic

# Business Unusual: Culture during a Pandemic

Since March, many of us had to suddenly transform our living spaces to home offices. One must wonder, what impact the pandemic and mandatory telework will have on organization culture? Although many may have different views of organizational culture, Wikipedia defines it as the following: 

Organizational culture encompasses values and behaviors that contribute to the unique social and psychological environment of a business. The organizational culture influences the way people interact, the context within which knowledge is created, the resistance they will have towards certain changes, and ultimately the way they share (or the way they do not share) knowledge.

 In the Bureau of the Fiscal Service Liberty Center Building in Washington, DC, staff from the Office of Financial Innovation and Transformation (FIT) sit in an open space where desks are unconstrained by physical boundaries like cubicle walls. By having this area, ideas are freely shared between two people and can quickly become impromptu ideation sessions among 10 people. Because FIT is about testing out new concepts, this seating arrangement helps how generation of ideas are discussed. Where we sit, how we interact, how we create knowledge, and how we share knowledge is part of FIT's organizational culture. 

 Because FIT is in several geographic locations, we have created an organizational culture of idea sharing using technology like Video teleconferencing and skype to bridge the geographic divide. Those capabilities are available to us on our laptops, but the cultural foundation of our ideation was based on impromptu face to face conversation where a passerby could always join.

Interactive communication is a central part of FIT's culture and we have tried to create forums during this period where dialog can occur. To that end, we have more status updates, periodic stand-up meetings, and a weekly voluntary "happy hour". These discussions are often a mix of work and social conversations. They are intended to bring FIT together when geography is unable to. The team has expressed they feel that communication (outside  the aforementioned meetings) has increased since starting mandatory telework. Although there may be many explanations why this is happening, what is most important is that people are productively talking.

As you gaze out the window of your home office, wondering what day of the week it is, the impact of the extended telework arrangement may be unknown on organizational culture for some time. But, the principles will change, and we will need to try new things along the way. Although this period has become trying, organizations have amazing employees who will continue to rise to every challenge presented to them – thus continuing to nurture their organizational cultures. 

 Let's keep the discussion going, what is your team doing to cultivate organizational culture during this major change in our workforce? Let's start the conversation here!

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Last modified 05/08/20